PARIS, Sept. 7 (Yonhap) -- A gift has arrived for a Spanish Taekwondo player who became the talk of the town in Korea by wearing a black belt with an awkward Korean phrase written on it.
The receiver of the gift was Adriana Cerezo Iglesias, the 18-year-old Spanish taekwondo medalist who won the silver medal in the final women's 49 kg event during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics while wearing a belt with the Korean words "기차 하드, 꿈 큰"' embroidered in yellow.
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| ▲ Spain's Adriana Cerezon Iglesias celebrates after wining over Turkey's Rukiye Yildirim during their Taekwondo Women's -49kg semifinal of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Makuhari Messe convention centre in Chiba, Japan, 24 July 2021. EPA/RUNGROJ YONGRIT |
While Cerezo lost the game at the time, the player wearing a black belt with an awkward sentence that seemed to have been automatically translated the words "train hard, dream big" into Korean, ultimately drew attention from the Korean audience.
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| ▲ CHIBA, JAPAN - JULY 24, 2021: Spain's Adriana Cerezo Iglesias (L) and Thailand's Panipak Wongpattanakit in their women's -49kg gold medal taekwondo bout during the 2020 Summer Olympic Games at the Makuhari Messe convention center. Valery Sharifulin/TASS |
Park Sang-hoon, the South Korean ambassador in Spain, visited Cerezo's training studio on the afternoon of Sept. 6 (local time) and presented the taekwondo player with Korean cosmetics, masks, K-pop group BTS and BLACKPINK's albums, and a brand new black belt with "훈련은 열심히. 꿈은 크게!", the corrected Korean phrase.
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| ▲ This photo, provided by the South Korean Embassy in Spain, shows South Korean Ambassador Park Sahng-hoon posing with Spanish taekwondo player Adriana Cerezo Iglesias, who won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics, after offering her a black belt at her training studio on Sept. 6, 2021. The belt carries the phrase, "Train Hard, Dream Big!." |
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| ▲ This photo, provided by the South Korean Embassy in Spain, shows South Korean Ambassador Park Sahng-hoon posing with Spanish taekwondo player Adriana Cerezo Iglesias, who won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics, after offering her a black belt at her training studio on Sept. 6, 2021. The belt carries the phrase, "Train Hard, Dream Big!." |
Ambassador Park also mentioned Cerezo is nicknamed as a "wonderful girl" in Spain, and asked the player to grow into a wonderful athlete and a good friend of Korea in the future.
"I'll wear this belt and train even harder. I like BTS, so thank you for giving me the band's latest ablum. I have never been to Korea yet, but I really want to go to the country where taekwondo is originated in," Cerezo said.
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